Molecules in the early Universe acted as natural temperature regulators, keeping the primordial gas cool and, in turn, allowing galaxies and stars to be born. Even now, such similarly simple chemistry continues to control a wide variety of the exotic objects that populate our cosmos. What are the tools of the trade for the cosmic chemist? What can they teach us about the Universe we live in? These are the questions answered in this engaging and informative guide, The Chemically Controlled Cosmos. In clear, non-technical terms, and without formal mathematics, we learn how to study and understand the behaviour of molecules in a host of astronomical situations. We study the secretive formation of stars deep within interstellar clouds, the origin of our own Solar System, the cataclysmic deaths of many massive stars that explode as supernovae, and the hearts of active galactic nuclei, the most powerful objects in the Universe. We are given an accessible introduction to a wealth of astrophys
The Red Rockets' Glare is the first academic study on the birth of the Soviet space program and one of the first social histories of Soviet science. Based on many years of archival research, the book situates the birth of cosmic enthusiasm within the social and cultural upheavals of Russian and Soviet history. Asif A. Siddiqi frames the origins of Sputnik by bridging imagination with engineering - seeing them not as dialectic, discrete, and sequential but as mutable, intertwined, and concurrent. Imagination and engineering not only fed each other but were also co-produced by key actors who maintained a delicate line between secret work on rockets (which interested the military) and public prognostications on the cosmos (which captivated the populace). Sputnik, he argues, was the outcome of both large-scale state imperatives to harness science and technology and populist phenomena that frequently owed little to the whims and needs of the state apparatus.
What are religions? Why is it important to understand them? One answer is that religions and religious believers are extremely bad news: they are deeply involved in conflicts around the globe; they harm people of whom they disapprove; and they often seem irrational. Another answer claims that they are in fact extremely good news: religious beliefs and practices are universal and so fundamental in human nature that they have led us to great discoveries in our explorations of the cosmos and of who we are. The sciences began as part of that religious exploration. John Bowker demonstrates that there is truth in both answers and that we need both to understand what religion is and why it matters. He draws on many disciplines - from physics, genetics and the neurosciences to art, anthropology and the history of religions - to show how they shed entirely new light on religion in the modern world.
In the first full-length study in any modern language dedicated to the Meteorologica, Malcolm Wilson presents a groundbreaking interpretation of Aristotle's natural philosophy. Divided into two parts, the book first addresses general philosophical and scientific issues by placing the treatise in a diachronic frame comprising Aristotle's predecessors and in a synchronic frame comprising his other physical works. It argues that Aristotle thought of meteorological phenomena as intermediary or 'dualizing' between the cosmos as a whole and the manifold world of terrestrial animals. Engaging with the best current literature on Aristotle's theories of science and metaphysics, Wilson focuses on issues of aetiology, teleology and the structure and unity of science. The second half of the book illustrates Aristotle's principal concerns in a section-by-section treatment of the meteorological phenomena and provides solutions to many of the problems that have been raised since the time of the ancie
How did the Sun evolve, and what will it become? What is the origin of its light and heat? How does solar activity affect the atmospheric conditions that make life on Earth possible? These are the questions at the heart of solar physics, and at the core of this book. The Sun is the only star near enough to study in sufficient detail to provide rigorous tests of our theories and help us understand the more distant and exotic objects throughout the cosmos. Having observed the Sun using both ground-based and spaceborne instruments, the authors bring their extensive personal experience to this story revealing what we have discovered about phenomena from eclipses to neutrinos, space weather, and global warming. This second edition is updated throughout, and features results from the current spacecraft that are aloft, especially NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, for which one of the authors designed some of the telescopes.
In The Universe Within, Neil Shubin reveals the connection between the evolution of the cosmos and the evolution of the human body. Just as the history of the earth is written in the rocks, so too is
Seven years before Richard Preston wrote about horrifying viruses in The Hot Zone, he turned his attention to the cosmos. In First Light, he demonstrates his gift for creating an exciting and absorbin
This innovative and visually engaging study presents a legend from Borneo in which the Kelabit hero Tuked Rini ventures out into the cosmos to do battle in remote spirit-laden places, returning to his
Billed by the author as the third of an informal trilogy that previously includes Engaging the Cosmos: Astronomy, Philosophy and Faith and Geography of Human Conflict, this volume examines the ways in
Mathematics, that breathtaking invention of ours that reveals the tiniest particles of matter and takes us to the outermost reaches of the cosmos, is found by many people to be intimidating. In The Universe and the Teacup, K. C. Cole demystifies mathematics and shows us-with humor and wonderfully accessible stories-why math need not be frightening. Using the O. J. Simpson trial, the bell curve, and Emmy Noether, the nineteenth-century woman scientist whose work was essential for Einstein's theory of relativity, Cole helps us see that more than just being a tool, math is a key to understanding the beauty of everything from rainbows to relativity.
Science fiction explores the wonderful, baffling and wildly entertaining aspects of a universe unimaginably old and vast, and with a future even more immense. It reaches into that endless cosmos with
In this lavishly-illustrated 6x6"book on our nearest neighbor in the cosmos (and a few other moons), Carlowicz, a science writer/editor with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, holds forth knowl
Animal Farm, published in 1945, is a satirical novel by British novelist and essayist George Orwell (1903–1950), pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair. Orwell is best known for Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-F
Susan Smith has always been a romantic and a dreamer. An avid writer, she has spent years writing, although it has usually been technical papers for college. Now, she spends her evenings and weekends
Tansy Bell, is the middle daughter of the three Bell sisters. She has always been a little different, even for a Bell. A chameleon, she can change her appearance and personality to blend in almost any
An essential guide to milestone developments in astronomy, telling the story of our ideas about space, time, and the physics of the cosmos—from ancient times to the present day. From planets and stars
A delightful intellectual feast from the bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics and The Order of TimeOne of the world’s most prominent physicists and a fearless free spirit, Carlo Rovelli is also a masterful storyteller. His bestselling books have introduced millions of readers to the wonders of modern physics and his singular perspective on the cosmos. This new collection of essays reveals a curious intellect always on the move. Rovelli invites us on an accessible and enlightening voyage through science, literature, philosophy and politics.Written with his usual clarity and wit, this journey ranges widely across time and space: from Newton’s alchemy to Einstein’s mistakes, from Nabokov’s epidopterology to Dante’s cosmology, from mind-altering psychedelic substances to the meaning of atheism, from the future of physics to the power of uncertainty. Charming, pithy and elegant, this book is the perfect gateway to the universe of one of the most influential minds of our age.
The new go-to picture book about the miracle of twins, in the tradition of Nancy Tillman's On the Night You Were Born.Families of twins will see their own hopes and dreams beautifully expressed in this charming and emotional origin story:You once twinkled in the stars, danced with the cosmos, before and beyond. Until one magic moment . . . destiny dawned. In this luminescent and poetic picture book, twin babies float and play in the cosmos - at first alone, and then together - dreaming of cuddles and kisses and a place to call home. Soon, they are tenderly called to Earth, where their loving families await them: You once twinkled in the stars. Now you sparkle in our hearts. Families of newborn twins will shed happy tears reading this poignant love letter to their longed-for babies, and little ones will enjoy hearing the magical story of how they came to be and how unique they are. This is a book destined to be the go-to gift for families of twins, and a classic for years to come.
